Source citations

Biography

Immigrant

On Burial certificate: Henry lived at Windsor, he was 84 years and listed as a yeoman. He was buried 2 days after he died, on the 18th march, 1846 at the parish of St Matthew, Windsor, County of Cumberland, N.S.W. The ceremony was performed by Henry T. Stiles and it was a Church of England burial.

On marriage certificate: The only information is Henry Cable and Susannah Holmes married on 10th February, 1788.

On 14 March 1783, at Thetford, Norfolk, Henry was tried for burglary. He was sentenced to transportation for 7 years, and left England on the Friendship (May 1787). He arrived with the First Fleet on 26 January 1788. Susannah Holmes married Henry on 10 February 1788, in a group marriage of three couples, the first weddings in the colony. They had met in gaol and Susannah had born his child, Henry, in gaol in 1786.

Family Oral History

Although it has been research thoroughly and no documented evidence exists to back the story there is a persistant family story that Henry carried Captain Phillip ashore when the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove, thus making Henry the first white person to step foot in Australia. This story seems to have spread through several generations down widely separated branches of the family. The main reason the story persist is that no one believes that Captain Phillip would jump into the water in order to reach shore.